What is Important To You In Your Job?

What is Important To You In Your Job?

What drives you?

Can you write it down in a single word? Is it recognition? Is it compensation? Is it the power?

Identifying your purpose in the job you do day day out helps to motivate you to. And if you really cannot find a purpose in the current job, it is time you move on.

Women's study finds longevity means getting just enough sleep

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2010) — A new study, derived from novel sleep research conducted by University of California, San Diego researchers 14 years earlier, suggests that the secret to a long life may come with just enough sleep. Less than five hours a night is probably not enough; eight hours is probably too much.

A team of scientists, headed by Daniel F. Kripke, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, revisited original research conducted between 1995 and 1999. In that earlier study, part of the Women's Health Initiative, Kripke and colleagues had monitored 459 women living in San Diego (ranging in age from 50 to 81) to determine if sleep duration could be associated with mortality.

Fourteen years later, they returned to see who was still alive and well.

Of the original participants, 444 were located and evaluated. Eighty-six women had died. Previous studies, based upon questionnaires of people's sleep habits, had posited that sleeping 6.5 to 7.5 hours per night was associated with best survival. Kripke and colleagues, whose 1990s research had used wrist activity monitors to record sleep durations, essentially confirmed those findings, but with a twist.

"The surprise was that when sleep was measured objectively, the best survival was observed among women who slept 5 to 6.5 hours," Kripke said. "Women who slept less than five hours a night or more than 6.5 hours were less likely to be alive at the 14-year follow-up."

The findings are published online in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Kripke said the study should allay some people's fears that they're not getting enough sleep. "This means that women who sleep as little as five to six-and-a-half hours have nothing to worry about since that amount of sleep is evidently consistent with excellent survival. That is actually about the average measured sleep duration for San Diego women."

Researchers uncovered other interesting findings as well. For example, among older women, obstructive sleep apnea (pauses in breathing during sleep) did not predict increased mortality risk. "Although apneas may be associated with increased mortality risk among those under 60, it does not seem to carry a risk in the older age group, particularly for women," Kripke said.

Co-authors of the study include Robert D. Langer of the Jackson Hole Center for Preventive Medicine; Jeffrey A. Elliot and Katharine M. Rex of the UCSD Department of Psychiatry; and Melville R. Klauber of the UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California -- San Diego, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

View the original article here

Don't Go To War Everyday

Are you going to war everyday? Are you fighting hard everyday? Is everything a matter of life and death to you? Do you treat everything with the same seriousness? Is every e-mail, memo, letter, comment, is of the same importance to you?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you are going to be a spent force sooner rather than later.

Working hard on everything everyday is tiring and consumes our resources in more ways we can see. To enjoy life and work, we must be able to sieve what is important from what is not.

Each of us have different priorities and everyday brings different challenges. Some will be more important than others and demands more from you. Others have lesser importance and a few will be of no value to you. Know the difference and eliminate those things that have no consequences to you. Forget it and focus your energy on the things that will affect you.

Would you sleep on a chunk of ice? Building your 'experience resume'

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2010) — If sleeping on a bed of ice or eating bacon-flavored ice cream doesn't sound too appealing, consider the tale you'll have to tell about it later. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, some people can't resist a chance to collect experiences.

"Recent marketing trends suggest that many consumers are attracted to unusual and novel consumption experiences and choose vacations, leisure activities, and celebrations that are predicted to be less pleasurable and enjoyable," write authors Anat Keinan (Harvard Business School) and Ran Kivetz (Columbia Business School).

"A fascinating example is the increasing popularity of Ice Hotels, where visitors sleep on beds made of ice in frigid temperatures of 25° F. A similar trend is observed in consumers' dining preferences: many restaurants are trying to attract consumers by offering unusual entrees and desserts. Such gastronomic innovations include tequila-mustard sorbet, bacon-flavored ice cream, and chocolate truffles with vinegar and anchovies."

Consumers are attracted to these activities and products because they view them as opportunities to collect new experiences and build their "experiential CV," the authors write. And this desire is connected to people's continual striving to use time efficiently and productively.

"This desire to accomplish more in less time is so powerful that it not only affects consumers' performance in vocational (or "production") settings, but can also influence their leisure preferences and consumption choices," the authors write.

In a series of experiments, the researchers found that a "productivity orientation" made participants more inclined to desire collectible experiences. They examined revelers celebrating New Year's Eve in New York City's Times Square, AARP members attending conferences on retirement and aging, park visitors, train and airport travelers, and people who are trying to visit all 50 states.

"Our findings suggest that marketers of unusual consumption experiences and innovative products should target consumers who are concerned with being productive (and collecting experiences)," the authors write.

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Chicago Press Journals, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Anat Keinan and Ran Kivetz. Productivity Orientation and the Consumption of Collectable Experiences. Journal of Consumer Research, 2010

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

View the original article here

Why brain has limited capacity for repair after stroke: New drug target identified

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2010) — Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability, due to the brain's limited capacity for recovery. Physical rehabilitation is the only current treatment following a stroke, and there are no medications available to help promote neurological recovery.

Now, a new UCLA study published in the Nov. 11 issue of the journal Nature offers insights into a major limitation in the brain's ability to recover function after a stroke and identifies a promising medical therapy to help overcome this limitation.

Researchers interested in how the brain repairs itself already know that when the brain suffers a stroke, it becomes excitable, firing off an excessive amount of brain cells, which die off. The UCLA researchers found that a rise in a chemical system known as "tonic inhibition" immediately after a stroke causes a reduction in this level of excitability.

But while this "damping down" initially helps limit the spread of stroke damage, the increased tonic inhibition level and reduced brain excitability persists for weeks, eventually becoming detrimental to the brain's recovery.

Based on this finding, the researchers identified a new way to "turn off" this inhibitory response in order to promote stroke recovery and determined the window of time in which this and other brain-repair therapies after stroke should be administered. These findings offer new targets for drug development to promote stroke recovery.

"It was surprising to find that the level of tonic inhibition was increased for so long after stroke and that there was an inflection point where the increased level eventually hindered the brain from recovering," said Dr. Tom Carmichael, associate professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Stroke Center. "It was also surprising that we could easily manipulate tonic inhibition in the brain after stroke to restore it back to a normal, 'non-stroke' level and, in doing this, enhance behavioral recovery."

Other studies have looked in general terms at excitatory signaling or at a type of inhibitory signaling after stroke known as "phasic inhibition." However, this previous work focused on the direct connections between brain cells.

The UCLA research is the first to examine tonic inhibition in stroke, focusing on the chemical system, which does not directly link brain cells together but instead senses the overall activity level in the brain and sets the thresholds for when brain cells will fire off new signals.

By studying stroke and stroke recovery in mice, the researchers found that since stroke causes a reduction in the normal clearance of an inhibitory brain chemical, it causes neurons in the tissue that borders the stroke to be less excitable. They found that by applying specific blockers of this inhibitory brain chemical, they could then "turn off the switch."

The resulting enhanced brain excitability immediately improved behavioral recovery after stroke. As a result, these findings identified the potential for a new target in the brain for effective stroke recovery treatments.

"An important element in stroke treatment is the timing of drug delivery," added Carmichael. "We found that blocking tonic inhibition too early could produce cell death, but by delaying treatment to three days after stroke, it promoted functional recovery without altering the stroke size."

The next stage of research will be to validate the findings in other pre-clinical models of stroke, and then to design clinical trials for humans. Pharmaceutical companies have been active in this region of neuroscience and there are some promising candidate drugs for human use that exist.

Additional authors were Andrew N. Clarkson, Ben S. Huang, Sarah E. MacIsaac and Istvan Mody.

This research was funded by the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, the Coelho Endowment, a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the American Heart Association.

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Andrew N. Clarkson, Ben S. Huang, Sarah E. MacIsaac, Istvan Mody, S. Thomas Carmichael. Reducing excessive GABA-mediated tonic inhibition promotes functional recovery after stroke. Nature, 3 November 2010 DOI: 10.1038/nature09511

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

View the original article here

How Many Friends Does One Person Need?

If you find relationships challenging to cultivate and maintain, then you are in good company. In his new book, evolutionary biologist Robin Dunbar argues that our ability to manage such complex social connections—love lives, work colleagues, childhood buddies and friendly acquaintances—is what drove humans to develop such large brains in the first place.

So how many friends do you really need? Read the interesting article here

Healthy Living - Why Are Caffeinated Alcoholic Energy Drinks Dangerous

A Temple University psychology associate professor explains what happens when sedatives and stimulants collide in the body..... read more of this article which appeared on Scientific American

Find Out

Getting things done is important. But you must get the right things done.

Look around you and you see almost everyone is doing something. But are they doing the right thing?

Find out what needs to be done and do it. Spend a little time finding the facts, finding what really needs to be done and then put your heart and soul in it.

Find out and save your resources

Personal Mission Statement

Personal mission statement is like a road map that guides us in our journey in life. It provides thrust and is a statement of purpose. Personal mission statement must inspire and excite. It should also build character.

Here are the things that you need to write your personal mission statement.

1. Paper and pen.

2. A place you are not interrupted.

3. Being aware of yourself. Personal mission statement cannot be written overnight. You must look into yourself and know your likes and dislikes. What are your talents and your passions. What makes you do the things you do.

4. Know your personality and the roles you play in life: son, father, electrical engineer, community leader or social worker.

5. Your personality traits. Write down all the good qualities you have for each role you play in life. Write only the positives. Are you charming? Generous? Optimist? Vivacious? Enthusiastic?

6. Know your beliefs and core values. This is an important part in writing a personal mission statement. Take your time to ponder upon this. Write down your beliefs and core values. After that narrow to more important beliefs and most important belief and value. To choose your most important value and belief, think about what impact you want to have, what you want others to remember you by.

7. Identify your goals. Write down about your priorities in life and your goals. Make a list of your short-term goals (from one to three years) and long-term goals (beyond three years).

8. Write down your mission statement. Incorporate items three to seven from the above and start writing your personal mission statement. Don’t rush through this and make it concise. You might have write and re-write a few times before getting it right.

9. Live it. Once you have written your personal mission statement, it is time to apply it. Remind yourself daily of your personal mission statement so that it is etched into your conscious mind and subconscious mind.